HULU SELANGOR: While the spotlight in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election campaign focuses on the activities of the two candidates and the powerful men who support them, little is mentioned about party campaigners of the fairer sex.

Lack of publicity aside, the women from both sides of the divide have been actively meeting the average folk to help spur support for their respective candidates, apart from also putting a woman’s touch to their prepoll approach.

Focusing more on human matters, such as welfare and family, the women’s wing of respective parties have been conducting community-based programmes like house-to-house visits to provide aid and such.

Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil has been spearheading her Skuad Sayang in a house-to-house campaign, mingling with the locals to hear their grouses and problems.

Their rivals, led by Wanita PKR chief Zuraida Kamaruddin and Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, have also been going house-to-house to chat with the constituents.

Sharizat, who is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said the difference was that they wanted to make friends while their opponents, were more issue-oriented.

Wanita MIC, too, has been quite rigorous in the campaigning. They have been visiting villages and estate settlements to organise ‘personal grooming’ programmes and flower arrangement courses. Tomorrow, the MIC ladies will organise a facial course in Taman Bunga Raya, Batang Kali.

Puteri Umno chief Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, who is also the Deputy Health Minister, used both her roles to her advantage.

She led a Puteri Umno and Health Ministry door-to-door campaign in Batang Kali to provide healthy food for new mothers along with free wheelchairs to the disabled.

If Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s presence in Hulu Selangor was considered a boost to the BN’s campaign, the presence of his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, was an added bonus.

BN hopeful P. Kamalanathan must be proud to know that Malaysia’s first lady has gone to the ground to campaign for him.

“If we want the future of our children to be bright, elect the BN candidate,” Rosmah told the folks of Felda Kampung Soeharto yesterday.

Both Kamalanathan and PKR candidate Datuk Zaid Ibrahim brought their wives along to the ceramah and walkabouts as moral support.

S. Shobana, Kamalanathan’s wife, has been beside her husband in almost every campaign function, while Datin Suliana Shamsuddin, Zaid’s wife, has been her husband’s moral pillar, given the allegations that the PKR supreme council member is a womaniser.